Men UConn's Program Success in Perspective

[UConnSportsGuy]

There are only 9 programs in all of America that have wins in all of the last 5 NCAA Baseball Tournaments:

Arkansas
East Carolina
LSU
Southern MIss
Stanford
Texas Tech
UConn
North Carolina
Vanderbilt



....and only one of those programs has not had the benefit of hosting an NCAA Regional....I'll let you guess which one.

This just puts in perspective how amazing Penders is and how special the UConn Baseball program is. And how completely under appreciated UConn is from a national perspective!

 

[Palatine]

Penders did a great job this year. He squeezed everything he could out of a suspect group of pitchers. The hitting was solid but was shut down by quality starters. Gotta keep on grinding. Keep recruiting.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Make no mistake about this; the job Penders has done has been tremendous.

The northeast (in large part due to the climate and shorter seasons as a result of this) produces less top level talent when compared to the south, parts of the midwest, southwest and west coast and quite often the lure of playing at a big name school in a better climate is at times enough to get a top prospect to leave the area for college.

Add to this the facilities, which prior to this season had been woefully inadequate, it is a testament to the leadership on our coaching staff that we've been as consistently solid as we have been for the past decade and a half.

One thing that still sticks in my craw is the misfortune that we suffered with our draw in 2011. Facing the defending champion on their way to winning two in a row was the only thing that could have kept that team from breaking through to the CWS.

 

[hardcorehusky]

I wonder as Penders gets closer and closer to getting to Omaha if he figures out how to find those grinders with a little more talent. He has the formula down and even has kids not make it onto campus. 2 more a guys a year, one at the bat and one on the mound that we haven't gotten in the past could be the difference between regionals and Omaha.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

I think it's only a matter of time (hopefully).

We should have made the CWS last year, we were so close and had the pitching to get it done. In 2010 we had a great shot of making the CWS, but just had a complete stinker weekend in Norwich. And the 2011 team was good enough to win it all, but unfortunately the Columbia Super Regional was probably a matchup of the two best teams in the country.

At the current rate, it is just a matter of time until the baseball God's align and we break through. I am ready to book my last minute trip to Omaha every single year...just waiting for the magic to happen.

Now, it will be interesting to see how Penders' strategy will have to shift if these B12 rumors come to fruition. A lot of talk on the potential implications of B12 shift for Basketball and Football, but very huge impact to our baseball program if it comes to be. A much different puzzle we will be playing with if instead of the Big East we are playing in the B12 with Texas Tech, Oklahoma St, TCU, Arizona, Arizona St, Baylor, Houston, West Virginia, etc.

 

[Palatine]

I think we go to CWS in 2022 if Crawford doesn't need Tommy John surgery. Terrible break for our Huskies and coach.